The Chinese New Year is one of the many colourful events celebrated in our multicultural calendar.

Each year in the Chinese calendar is named after an animal, and in this lesson learners will listen to the story of how the order of the animals was decided. They will join in with the story and retell it, then do some follow-up work practising saying years, using ‘will’ for future predictions or making a craft.

Aims

To introduce or revise the vocabulary for the Chinese New Year animals

To practise listening skills

To develop speaking and storytelling skills

To practise saying years

To practise the use of ‘will’ for future predictions

Age groupPrimary

LevelCEFR level A1/A2

Time60 minutes

MaterialsThe lesson plan can be downloaded in PDF format below. In addition, you will need:

world map

flashcards for each of the animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig) and a flashcard of a king and a princess

props for retelling the story, e.g. blue paper for the river, card and string to make masks, etc.